Rob, (01)
In my 1984 book, I emphasized that both continuous and discrete aspects
are fundamental to perception, cognition, and reasoning. I also cited
Kenneth Pike's _Unified Theory of Human Behavior_ in which he showed
how that distinction extends to every aspect of human life. (02)
RF> In contrast your "pursuing" presentation
>
> http://www.jfsowa.com/talks/pursuing.pdf
> mentioned what you call "continuous" theories which should be
> seen as underlying discrete categories.
>
> Is that a change? Are you moving from a "network of theories"
> model to an underlying "continuous" model? (03)
The big brains of the primates evolved for the purpose of
coordinating rather heavy monkeys and apes as they swung from tree
to tree. It's no accident that human aviators have a remarkable
ability in aerial dogfights. Any of their remote ancestors who
didn't have good hand-eye coordination in high-speed 3-D action
were summarily removed from the gene pool. (04)
On the other hand (or brain), the purpose of perception is to
subdivide continuous reality into familiar percepts or concepts
to which well-learned responses can be applied instantly without
requiring lengthy chains of reasoning. The words of language
are naturally tied to those percepts and concepts. (05)
The great advance of Homo sapiens over the apes results from the
possibility of metalevel reasoning about those discrete units.
Logic is an abstraction from that aspect of language. (See my
next note in response to Pat Hayes.) (06)
John (07)
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